Essential Initial Documents for Asset Management

When an organization embarks on an exercise to procure an asset (s), the procurement documentation would be as perfect as the asset itself. But when the asset is procured and put into service, that’s where all problems start.

Firstly, the original procurement documentation is no where to be found,

Secondly, the person who holds the original procurement documentation is either retired or has moved out from the organization,

Thirdly, the asset does not have the proper documentation describing its physical capabilities or even life span or the type of maintenance needed.

So, what documentations that we need for assets?

The documentations are quite simple to obtain at the time the asset is procured but hard to retain when the asset is in service. The documentations are as follows:

a. The procurement documentation
b. The as-built drawings or the installation drawings (if applicable)

c. Quality assurance records (if applicable)
d. Manual (or operating manual)

The organization must keep these documents for as long as the asset’s service life or even design life. Whenever the organization move to a new complex or even a new office building, these documents are invaluable as the current office’s files.

To test our organization, just answer these simple questions:

a. For a start, do we have the office’s computer manual?
b. What’s the office’s computer service life?
c. How much is the cost of the original purchase?
d. Where are the licenses for the software?

If the answers are all “no” or “do not know”, then the organization need to start to obtain and retain the necessary documentations for the assets procured. Without these documentations, then the organization would find hard to maintain the asset or even to ensure the asset operate as it should be during its design and service life.

Just imagine, a cable stayed bridge or an aircraft does not have an operating manual. Would you feel safe to travel on it?